New body to replace Planning Commission should be better: Kerala CM Oommen Chandy

New Delhi: On the eve of a meet to discuss Planning Commission's restructuring, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the existing body is well accepted and any new setup should be more effective in further

New Delhi: On the eve of a meet to discuss Planning Commission's restructuring, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the existing body is well accepted and any new setup should be more effective in further strengthening the Centre-state relations.

Chandy, who will be attending the meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here tomorrow to give a new shape to the Soviet-era Planning Commission, hoped that the Centre would move ahead with its plan only after reaching a consensus on the issue with the states.

"Planning Commission is a well accepted system. It is an effective mechanism through which states and the Centre coordinate on financial issues including resource allocations. If there is any plan to restructure it, states should be taken into confidence," the senior Congress leader said on Saturday.

"If there is a plan to restructure the Planning Commission, the body which is being visualised should be more effective than the existing one and it should be an effective tool to further strengthen relations between the Centre and the states," the Chief Minister said.

In his Independence Day address, Modi had announced that a new institution with a new soul will replace the Planning Commission, which is over six decades old.

Modi argues that it has lost its relevance in the contemporary world and to discuss what shape the Planning Commission should have.

According to the present system, the Prime Minister is the chairman of the Planning Commission, which works under the overall guidance of the National Development Council.

The deputy chairman and the full-time members of the Commission, as a composite body, provide advice and guidance for the formulation of Five Year Plans, annual plans, state plans and monitoring plan programmes among others.

Modi informed Lok Sabha yesterday that plans are afoot for reshaping of the Planning Commission to make it in sync with the changing times.

"I have convened a meeting of Chief Ministers on December 7. We will have detailed discussions with them. In the Planning Commission also there had been discussions earlier on how to bring it in tune with the changing times. Taking all these aspects into consideration, plans are afoot towards a new shape (of the plan panel)," he had said.